Only One Day
by Revever
Summary: Gold anxiously waits for Bae's return from his very first school trip. Belle allows him to spent the whole day with her at the library. Follow up to In The Library On Saturdays. Part four of Something There series.


'Papa! Hurry up! We'll be late!'

Gold actually burned his lips trying to drink his coffee. Yes, he overslept and yes, absolutely everything took him forever to do today. He was sure that anybody would accuse him of purposefully stalling, but it was just his anxiety making it difficult to concentrate. And he wasn't able to sleep for the better part of the night.

Bae was going on his very first school trip and to the swimming pool, no less. His precious boy was totally excited, so Gold tried very hard to not spoil it by behaving overprotective. But it was simply hard to do.

'Papa!'

'What? I'm coming!'

'You didn't turn off the stove!'

'What? Oh, damn!'

Gold quickly turned the cursed thing off, trying not to think about his and Bae's house burned to the ground and them both becoming homeless.

'I think I should become the firefighter after all,' Bae announced.

'Why would you...?' Oh. 'Don't be such a smartass, young man!'

Bae laughed without remorse, but without malice too.

'Come on, papa! I can't be late today!'

On any other day Bae didn't like to be late too, with a notable exception of Thursdays, when his first lesson was music with the Mayor Mills' sister.

Driving safely but quick enough took the rest of his energy. Thank gods that there wasn't that much traffic.

Bae's class was assembling before school gates. The bus was already waiting, the shiny, new thing, but Gold didn't trust it anyway. He couldn't trust anything that was going to take his son so far away to Boston.

'Emma!' Bae shouted, waving to his friend. Emma Nolan was approaching them with proud expression on her face. Her father was walking a good ten steps behind her, with just as proud but a bit goofy face.

'Hello, Mr. Gold,' David Nolan said. 'Look at her, she's so big and independent. She insisted that she's big enough to go to school on her own. So, we reached a compromise.'

'I see,' Gold said, distracted. Bae was chattering with Emma about the trip. When he started to describe the water slides, Gold was just about to go and lapse into a long, and from Bae's perspective undoubtedly embarrassing, lecture on safety. But just then Mary Margaret Nolan, Bae's teacher, started to round the children up to get aboard the bus. Before Gold knew, he was already awkwardly crouching on the pavement, embracing Bae in a tight hug.

'Papaaa!...' Bae protested. Something in Gold's mind also protested, trying to explain that he's just embarrassing his son. His reputation protested even more violently, people shouldn't see him like that. But Bae was going on his first trip, alone, so far away and to the swimming pool!

He finally managed to let Bae go, stand up and look menacingly at Mary Margaret.

'Don't worry, Gold,' David piped in. 'She'll take a wonderful care of our kids.'

Gold nodded, not looking at him. He observed how Bae entered the bus and let Emma have the seat by the window. He waved until his son couldn't see it anymore and probably even longer. Then he turned and left, getting his car and driving absentmindedly to his shop. Actually, he thought, standing before shop's door with his keys in hand, he didn't need to open today, right? It wasn't like this was his primarily source of income. He could go for a walk instead, he wasn't in the mood for any precise work he had planned.

In no time he found himself before the library and went in before he had time to think it over.

'Hello, Mr. Gold!' Belle smiled radiantly. 'What can I do for you? Have you read The Iron King already?'

Gold felt himself blushing.

'Um, no, I've just got to the part where Jacob de Molay curses the king... I'm sorry, I know it's been a few days...'

'It's okay,' Belly interrupted, still smiling. So probably it really was okay. 'What can I do for you, then?'

'Well, Bae is on his first school trip. To Boston. Swimming pool.'

'You're nervous?' she asked, sounding compassionate, without trace of ridicule.

'I... Yes. I guess I need a distraction. I... But I shouldn't distract you from your work, right?'

'You're not distracting me from anything. You can see that I don't have any visitors right now. We can talk, I'll make tea. If someone visits I can always help him and get back to our conversation. Please, come, let's sit down.'

She had the tea prepared in no time, the black grapes mix she's gave him last time. By itself it did quite much to calm him down.

'So, Bae is on his first trip?' Belle asked with a small, sweet smile.

Gold nodded.

'I wanted to go with them, as the additional guardian, but Bae didn't want me to,' he explained miserably.

Belle actually smiled wider, with something like tenderness.

'It's very wonderful of you to respect that.'

'Is it?'

'It is,' Belle confirmed. 'Especially when you're anxious like that.'

'Oh.' Gold felt himself blushing. He didn't really thought to look at it that way.

'I think Bae is smart and practical boy, he'll be absolutely fine. It's only one day, you'll have him back in no time. Just wait, I bet you'll be hearing every detail of the trip five times over and over again.'

Gold smiled.

'I can't wait.'

'Well, since you're not going to open your shop today, I can think of several things you can help me with in the library. Are you up to the task?'

'Sure,' Gold smiled even wider. He already felt a bit better about Bae, but if he could stay with Belle he wasn't going to miss the opportunity.

'Then I need you to get the new books into plastic wrap. That will help me to put them on the shelves much sooner. I will be cataloging them in the meantime.'

Gold nodded. This was a nice, simple task, something that he won't mess up by being nervous, underslept and unable to concentrate. It was also so much easier than his usual book restoring, that he was doing for his clients.

That's right. Books. He had a whole shelf of old, rare books in his shop. How could he not think about this earlier? He could show them to Belle. And if she likes something, he could lend it to her, maybe give her as a present later.

The next few hours passed in a companionable silence over work as he really wouldn't want to crash Belle's concentration. He let Belle decide when to talk. And the whole time he had that nice, warm feeling that reminded him of a time when his aunt allowed him to stay home instead of going to school when he wasn't feeling well, no doctors and no questions asked. He didn't have to stay in bed and anyway, the main reason for his very real sickness was an anxiety over planned on that day competition in the gym class. His aunt must have known it, but never told him a bad word. He spent that day helping her with sewing in her little, cozy workshop.

Belle allowed him to stay until closing, which was still an hour before Bae's return. She even brought them lunch from Granny's. If only he could be somehow sure that Bae would be okay, this might be something he could repeat forever.

Presently, however, Belle was closing the library and he needed to try something more.

'I think I'll head to the shop now. If... if you want, you could go with me, I, ah, have some books you might like?'

Stars, he was a stammering idiot. But the only way he know to seem confident was to be intimidating, and that would make absolutely no sense with Belle.

She smiled anyway. Was this some kind of a dream? Would he wake up only to discover that it was the morning and the trip was still ahead of them?

'Sure, I'll come with you,' Belle said. 'I couldn't pass up the opportunity.'

She flashed him another smile that made him blush completely uncontrollably and he cursed himself for being a dirty old man.

But Belle went with him to the shop, smiling all the way and chattering lightly about everything and nothing. She didn't even expect him to keep up with her on the various town gossips, all sweet and innocent, and presented in such a smart, funny and kind way.

'Oh my God, is that first edition?!' Belle almost screamed seeing his copy of Jane Eyre. She didn't dare to touch the book, just hovered her hands over it. Gold felt himself to be ridiculously jealous of that ancient pile of paper, ink and leather.

'The very first,' he admitted. 'You can touch it. You can see all the books, and if you want to borrow one or two, I don't mind.'

More honestly, he would be in seventh heaven if she did.

'This is wonderful, Mr. Gold...' she whispered in awe. 'But aren't that books you want to sell?'

He shrugged.

'No one seems to be interested in them.'

She spend the next hour pouring over the whole collection of books placed on his worktable and Gold spend this whole time just looking at her. But then the time was up.

'Um... I need to go get Bae,' he said carefully, hating to interrupt when Belle was this happy. He should have proposed this another day when there was more time. Then again...

'But you're welcome here anytime. Tomorrow for start?'

'Okay. Of course you should go get Bae.'

She had the most adorable, fuzzy, cross-eyed expression and she clearly was still half immersed in the novels.

'You can take one book with you.'

'A...are you sure?'

She looked one hundred percents like Bae in the toy shop.

'I'm sure.'

She picked the first edition of Jane Eyre immediately.

'Thank you so much! I'll be careful, I promise!'

And here was Bae at his most angelic while borrowing his collection of old maps to pretend he was a traveler.

'Do you want me to go with you to pick Bae up?' she asked suddenly.

'You would want...?'

'Sure. Unless you want to go alone?'

'No, I mean, yes... I mean...' Stars, such a cliche, he couldn't believe he actually said that aloud. 'I'd be glad if you come with me. I'll drive you back home later.'

It was very close from his shop to her apartment over library, but the school was much further.

She nodded and soon they were in his car. It felt so natural to have her there, without this horrible tension he felt each time with Millie. Standing with her at school gate and waiting for Bae also was peaceful and felt normal. The times when he and Millie were trying to be a normal parents were always close to walking on burning embers barefoot.

The bus was five minutes late and if not for Belle, Gold didn't know how would he survived it. She was distracting him, even if he kept glancing at his watch all the time.

'Bae!' he shouted when his son stepped on the pavement.

'Papa!' his boy waved at him, grinning widely, but didn't immediately come to him. He chatted for a moment with his friends and with Mary Margaret, who made sure that for every child someone has come.

'It was so cool!' Bae announced without preamble when he finally walked over to Gold and let his papa hug and cuddle him for longer than usual. 'Hi, Belle!' he added, seeing her. That too sounded natural, but Gold couldn't help but wonder what his son would think of his crush. Would he accept Belle as more than a family friend? He quickly shook his head because there really was no indication that Belle would become something more.

Yet, when he drove her to her apartment, before she get out of the car, she leaned closer and quickly kissed his cheek, while ever observant Bae giggled from the backseat. And he couldn't help but wonder.


End file.
